Separator for tomato harvester and the like

ABSTRACT

A separator for mechanical harvesters of the type where the fruit or other heavy part of the crop is separated from the remainder of the plant by a shaking action. A generally rectangular frame has a front end where harvested plants are introduced and a rear end where they leave. A rockshaft supports the front end of the frame for substantially pure fore-and-aft movement, while crank means support the rear end of the frame and drive it as a unit in a generally circular motion involving both vertical and fore-and-aft components. There is a plurality of pulleys at each end of the frame, those on the rear end being mounted on the crank pin and driven by the crank means, those on the front end being idlers individually spring mounted. The pulleys cany a plurality of closed-loop belts with upwardly extending projections for engaging harvesting plants and moving them from the front to the rear of the frame. A collecting conveyor beneath the frame catches the fruit shaken from said plant and conveys it elsewhere. Thus, the more easily loosened fruit is shaken off by fore-and-aft shaking while the fruit more difficult to loosen is shaken off by the gradual introduction of vertical movement as the crop moves rearwardly. The belt, pulleys, and belt guides are also novel in structure.

States Patent [151 3,666,017 Gates et [451 ay 30, 1972 [54] SEPATOR FORT0 1 Primary Examiner-Antonio F. Guida HVESTER AND THE LIKEAttorney-Owen, Wickersham and Erickson [72] Inventors: Lauren W. Gates,Rio Vista; Michael J. ABSTRACT Hartwig, Walnut Creek, both of Calif.

[73] Assignee: The Regents of the University of California, Berkeley,Calif.

[22] Filed: July 2, 1970 [21] App]. No.: 60,974

Related U.S. Application Data [62] Division of Ser. No. 725,874, May 1,1968.

[52] U.S. Cl ..l71/27 [51] lnt.Cl..... ..A0ld27/00 [58] Field ofSeai-ch..l71/27, 1, 14, 13; 130/30, 130/30 A, 30 J, 26; 209/365, 308, 309

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,420,239 1/1969 Lorenzen..l7l/27 3,199,604 8/1965 Lorenzen et al.. ..l71/27 1,999,673 4/1935Weber ..209/365 2,559,965 7/1951 lnnes ...l7i/l3 3,495,597 2/1970 Schlue..130/26 A separator for mechanical harvesters of the type where thefruit or other heavy part of the crop is separated from the remainder ofthe plant by a shaking action. A generally rectangular frame has a frontend where harvested plants are introduced and a rear end where theyleave. A rockshaft supports the front end of the frame for substantiallypure foreand-aft movement, while crank means support the rear end of theframe and drive it as a unit in a generally circular motion involvingboth vertical and fore-and-aft components. There is a plurality ofpulleys at each end of the frame, those on the rear end being mounted onthe crank pin and driven by the crank means, those on the front endbeing idlers individually spring mounted. The pulleys cany a pluralityof closed-loop belts with upwardly extending projections for engagingharvesting plants and moving them from the front to the rear of theframe. A collecting conveyor beneath the frame catches the fruit shakenfrom said plant and conveys it elsewhere. Thus, the more easily loosenedfruit is shaken 011' by fore-andaft shaking while the fruit moredifficult to loosen is shaken off by the gradual introduction ofvertical movement as the crop moves rearwardly. The belt, pulleys, andbelt guides are also novel in structure.

4 Claims, 14 Drawing Figures Patented May 30, 1972 3,666,017

4 Sheets-Sheet 1 F 2 INVENTORS LAUREN W. GATES MICHAEL J. HARTWIG vATTORNEYS Patentd May 30, 1972 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS LAUREN W.GATES MICHAEL J. HARTWIG ATTORNEYS Patented May 30, 1972 3,666,017

4 Sheets-Sheet 5 LAUREN W. GATES MICHAEL J. HARTWHG Ow, m

ATTO RNEYS Patented May 30, 1972 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 12 F|e 1o' INVEVTO Nw. GATE 1 MICHAEL J. HARTW 0%,M PA JILJ" -4 FIG-.12

ATTORNEYS SEPARATOR FOR TOMATO I-IARVESTER AND THE LIKE This applicationis a division of application Ser. No. 725,874 filed May 1, 1968.

This invention relates to animproved separator device for agriculturalharvesting apparatus such as a tomato harvester, in which fruit isshaken loose from the other parts of the plant.

One of the critical steps in harvesting vine crops, such as tomatoes, isthe separation of the fruit from the vine. In most tomato harvestersthis is done by one or another of several kinds of shaking apparatuswhich shake the tomatoes loose from the vine so that it drops onto acollecting conveyor below the shaking apparatus. This invention relatesto improvements in the shaking apparatus.

The separators heretofore used in tomato harvesters have had twoprincipal disadvantages: (1) they have tended to damage the fruit duringthe shaking and collection, and (2) they have tended to slow down theharvesting operation as a whole. For example, the fastest tomatoharvester in commercial operation in 1967 had a maximum capacity of 35to 36 tons per hour of harvested tomatoes in a field having a yield ofabout 23 tons per acre, and had a maximum ground speed, due to thiscapacity, of approximately 1% miles per hour. The percent invention hasalready enabled a capacity of at least 60 tons per hour in such a fieldand has achieved harvesting ground speeds of at least 2 and 2/10 milesper hour-very substantial improvements over the best capacities andspeeds heretofore available, and even better rates are expected fromother machines embodying this invention. Moreover, this apparatus doesthis not by trying to handle more rows of tomatoes with a larger machinebut in a machine that is of substantially the same size of thatheretofore employed, differing almost solely by having the moreefficient shaking apparatus of this invention.

Similarly, the damage rate to tomatoes being harvested has in the pastbeen between and percent of the harvested fruit, and the damagedtomatoes have had to be discarded during sorting if they were not toresult in rejection of the whole crop by the canner to which thetomatoes were taken. Most, but not all, of this damage occurred duringshaking. Tests on early models of the device of the present inventionhave indicated that the total amount of damaged fruit has been reducedto a total of about 6 to 11 percent of the harvested fruit, and thisamount is expected to be further reduced by other harvesters embodyingthis invention. Furthermore, it appears that most of this damage doesnot occur in the separation step but is due to other things, such asdamage that happened when the crop was picked up from the ground, damageinflicted during the growing period, and damage occurring during sortingor during transfer elsewhere. Damage due to these remaining causes canbe reduced by other expedients; so that it is expected that the totalamount of damage can be reduced quite substantially.

Thus, the present invention achieves both a higher rate of separationand a lower rate of damage, so that the economy of mechanical harvestingof such crops as tomatoes is greatly enhanced.

Tomato harvester separators heretofore in use have been mainly of twokinds: one vibrated the vines in a back and forth movement only; anothervibrated them both up and down and back and forth over their entirepath. Of these two types, the latter was by far the more effective,although it tended to result in some increase in the damage rate. Mereback-andforth vibration of the vines has often failed to recover asatisfactory amount of the crop, much less than is recovered by thecombination of up-and-down with back-and-forth shaking, and hastherefore substantially reduced the yield obtained from the field.Similarly, back-and-forth vibration has usually meant very slowoperation, with substantial reduction in yield rate.

The present invention is characterized by a combination of these twotypes of motion in a novel and efficient way which produces a newresult. Thus, there is strict fore-and-aft movement at the front end ofthe separator for loosening easily loosened tomatoes from the vine; thenas the vines progress rearwardly along the separator, up-and-down motionis introduced and its amplitude increased, to harvest the somewhat lessripe tomatoes and other tomatoes which are more difficult to separatefrom the vine but which are also more resistant to damage by bruising.In contrast with the best separators heretofore in use, in which theup-and-down motion has been achieved by oppositely moving alternatepairs of walking bars, the present invention has no such oppositelymoving pairs, but its up-and-down movement is achieved in a rear portionof an apparatus which moves up and down as a unit, and this has beenfound to minimize damage to the tomatoes by eliminating the situation inwhich some tomatoes were thrown up into the air and then fell down on anupwardly moving bar. Fruit removal from the vines appears to be evenbetter and more efficient, while the damage rate is dropped; in fact, asimplied earlier, the absolute damage rate is approximately halved whilethe recovery-per-time rate is approximately doubled.

With the present invention the harvesting speed is limited mainly by thespeed at which the vines can be picked up from the ground, whereasbefore this invention the separator was the main limiting factor indetermining the harvesting speed.

In the present invention the separator comprises a frame having a seriesof rearwardly moving conveyor belts that pull the vine towards the rearof the separator. The forward part of the frame is supported on arockshaft structure for substantially pure fore-and-aft movement,whereas the rear portion of the frame is mountedon a crankshaft for acombination foreand-aft and up-and-down movement. The conveyor belts aredriven in a novel manner by the crankshaft, and counterbalancingeliminates excessive inertial forces and other nonuseful forces ofvibration. Several novel features of construction will be betterappreciated upon description of the apparatus as a whole.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear from thefollowing description of a preferred embodiment of the invention.

IN THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a fragmentary view in side elevation andpartly in section of a separator portion of a tomato harvester embodyingthe principles of the invention, broken in the middle to conserve space,with the viewpoint of the right-hand portion at a different plane fromthat of the left hand portion.

FIG. 2 is a view in section taken along'the line 22 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the moving parts of the separator, thecenter portion being shown in phantom with some parts omitted, since itis identical to the solid-line portion nearby. Also the depending tinesthat are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 are indicated in phantom.

FIG. 4 is a view in side elevation of the apparatus of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a view in elevation and in section on an enlarged scale of oneof the belt guiding members, taken along the line 55 in FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a view in side elevation of the portion of the device of FIG.5.

FIG. 7 is an exploded view on a somewhat smaller scale of the mainstationary elements of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is an end view of one of the members of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is an enlarged fragmentary view in side elevation of the forwardend of the separator of FIG. 3.

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary front elevational view partly in sec tion ofthe forward end of FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 is a view in elevation of one of the front pulley wheels, takenalong the line 1l11 in FIG. 10.

FIG. 12 is a fragmentary enlarged top plan view partly in section of thelocking means for the springs of FIG. 10.

FIG. 13 is a fragmentary view in rear elevation, partly broken away andshown in section, of a portion of the shaft and pulley members of therear crankpin.

FIG. 14 is a view in section taken along the line 14-14 in FIG. 13.

The separator of this invention may be used as part of a selfpropelledtomato harvester which is supported on wheels and moves through a field,carrying with it, as a part of its main frame 20 or rigidly attached toit, a pair of side walls 21 and 22, one at each side of the harvester.The main frame 20 also carries fixed bearings 23 at the front and fixedbearings 24 at the rear (see FIG. 4) for support of a separator frame 25shown best in FIGS. 3 and 4. The separator frame 25 includes two sidemembers 26 and 27 to which are secured a series of cross members 28 anda front cross member 29. The members 26, 27, 28, and 29 are all securedtogether as by welding to provide a substantially unitary frame 25.

The front cross member 29 may be supported on a rockshaft assembly 30having a pair of link portions 31 that are each effectively journaled onthe elastomeric bearings 23 fixed to the frame 20 and are joumaled tothe side frame members 26 and 27 by elastomeric bearings 23'. Therockshaft assembly 30 also includes a cross member 32 joining the links31 together, and it is preferably equipped with a pair of counterweights33 depending from arms 34 secured to the cross member 32 and oppositethe point on the rockshaft assembly 30 to which the separator side framemembers 26 and 27 are attached. The reciprocating mass of the frame 25(or that portion of the mass which may be considered to be reciprocatingin the slider crank mechanism) requires the counterbalance 33 in orderto avoid excessive inertial forces from driving the harvester frame 20in a reciprocating manner. The mass of the counterweight 33 thus acts tooppose the mass which is reciprocating on the separator itself. Therockshaft 30 and bearings 23 thus provide the front support for theseparator side frame members 26 and 27.

The rear of the separator frame 25 is carried by two sheaves 35 that aresupported by the stationary fixed bearings 24 and are driven by belts 36from a power source elsewhere on the machine and not shown here. A longcrankpin 37 is supported by the sheaves 35 offset from the bearings 24;and the frame members 26 and 27 are connected to offset bearings 38. Thecrankpin 37 extends all the way across the separator frame 25.

A series of endless belts 40 are carried by a series of front pulleys 41and by a series of rear pulleys 42 mounted rigidly on the crankpin 37(see FIGS. 13 and 14), which both drive and support the rear of a seriesof endless belts 40. Since all the pulleys 42 on the crankpin 37 are onthe same center line, they move with the same motion. The bearings 24connected to the main frame 20 establish a fixed relationship betweenthe rear or crankshaft end of the separator frame 25 and the elastomericbearings 23' for the rockshaft assembly 30, which, in turn, supports theforward end of the separator frame 25. The pulleys 42 rotate the belts40 in a manner to be explained, and therefore drive them so as to carrythe vine along over the separator frame 25.

The belts 40 of this separator are in themselves unique, as shown inFIGS. 5, 6, and 9. A lower or flange portion 43 comprises the belt'stensile member; on the upper surface of this flanged portion 43 iserected a rib 44 extending the full length of each belt 40. On that rib44 at spaced intervals, for example three to five inches, or four inchesin a typical case, are projections 45 which extend upwardly on the uppercourse and downwardly on the lower course. On the upper course, theprojections 45 extend into the vine or other material being transferredby the belts 40 and reduce the amount of slippage between the belt 40and the vine. The projections 45 are preferably not solid but are madewith a hollow center 46 between upstanding legs 47 and 48, rather smallin section and free to flex, so that when the belts 40 turn around itspulleys 41 and 42, the projections 45 do not produce excessivestiffness, which could not be tolerated by the belts 40 in the use ofsmall diameter pulleys. The hollow construction enables the use of thesmall diameter pulleys 41 and 42 and enables the operation to beefiicient and helps the belts 40 to last a long time.

The belts 40 are supported and guided intermediate the pulleys 41 and 42by a series of guide assemblies 50, each mounted on the cross member 28(see FIGS. -8). Each guide assembly is made of two identical pieces 51and 51a, which are inverted to face each other and are locked together.An end wall 52, 52a with a semi-circular inner face 53, 53a has twoprojecting horizontal members 54 and 55 (or 54aand 55a), each half aswide as the wall 52 or 52a and projecting from the opposite side. Themembers 54 and 54a have side walls 56, 56a, that come against eachother, the two pieces 51 and 51a then being secured together by a bolt57. The pieces 51 and 51a have recesses 58, 58a, and flanges 59, 59athat loosely receive and guide the belts flanges 43. Being held to eachother by the bolts 57 and supported thereby also on the cross members28, these pieces 51 and 51a are readily disassembled and reassembled inthe field, for repair or replacement of parts. Both the upper and lowerreaches of the belt 40 are so supplied.

Preferably, the pulleys 41 and 42 over which the belts 40 move are notsimple flat-surface pulleys, although they are basically similar. Thepulleys 41 at the front of the frame 25 are constructed of a series ofaxially oriented elements 60 with large spaces 61 in between them, inorder to enable dirt carried by the belts 40 to drop off beneath flanges62 and beneath the belts 40, rather than being trapped between thesurface of the belt 40 and the pulley 41 as would be the case with aconventional flat-surface pulley. Each element 60 has a narrow centralsupporting portion 63 to facilitate this cleaning, the portion 63 beingrecessed to a hub 64 which is mounted on a ball-bearing 65.

At the rear of the machine the pulleys 42 are generally similar but aresomewhat different; they have generally trapezoidal plates 66, withrecessed central portions 67 that instead of being welded to bearinghousings in the center are rather welded to the crankpin 37. Therecessed portions of the plates 66, which may be called spokes, arewelded to a pair offlanges or rims 68 that are spaced away from theshaft 37, leaving openings 69 sufficient to provide adequate wear lifeand strength and to support the belts 40 throughout the life of thepulley 42. The openings 69 and 61 between the flanges 68 or 62 and thehub 64 or shaft 37 reduce the area into which it is possible to jam softearthy material such as mud, and since there is a tendency for mud tostick and jam at that point, this has been counteracted by the fact thatmud, when forced far enough down between the spokes, reaches a relievingundercut area which enables it to break up and become less confined andtherefore lets it fall out the sides of the pulleys.

At the product-receiving or forward end of the separator, each pulley 41is supported by a ball bearing 65 on an individual spring-loaded shaft70. The belts 40 employ these forward pulleys 41 as idlers and drivethem in an idling fashion, but are dependent on them for tension whichis provided by the spring-loading mechanism supporting each individualpulley 41. For these purposes, the front cross member 29 of theseparator subframe 25 may be a rectangular tube; rigidly attached to themember 29 is a series of 90 arcuate members 71, each of which may bemade from a circular tube (see FIG. 9). Clevises 72 at the forward andlower extremities of all of these members 71 preferably carry a seriesof stub shafts 73 all on a common center line 74 (see FIG. 10). Arms 75,each rotatably mounted on a stub shaft 73, carry a pulley shaft for oneidler pulley 41. The idler arms 75 are urged to their position by a veryheavy torsion spring 76, each individually mounted to the stub shaft 73and having a projecting end 77 that is placed in a notch 78 of anassembly locking bar 79, so that the belts 40 are kept tight. The belttension balances the spring tension.

The rockshaft 30 and crankpins 37 result in a combination slider-crankmechanism which is a very important feature of the invention. The frame25, which is primarily responsible for separating the product from thevines, moves at its receiving or forward end in a nearly linear manner,almost as though it were reciprocating on a plane. Upon this end thevines drop onto the separator from the elevator device, which bringsthem to a point above the separator and then disengages them. Thus, asthe vines drop upon the separator, they are supported by a bed made upof the series of spaced separator belts 40 with the impaling members 45that extend upwardly and cause the vine to move to the rear, since themembers 45 become entangled in the vine. The motion at the front end,similar to that of a purely reciprocating slider crank mechanism, isfairly rapid. This rapid reciprocation orients the vine and the fruitthereon and obtains a degree of initial separation, so that the ripestor most easily loosened fruit falls off at this point where it is beingtreated most gently and where it simply falls gently down to a collectorbelt 80, which is below, and near to it, and which may be that shown inUS. Pat. No. 3,206,01 1.

In addition to the slider crank motion, there is the up-anddown movementcaused by the crankshaft, for at the discharge end the rotating crankpin37 carries the rotating flat pulleys 42 which individually support,guide, and drive the individual separator belts 40. Thus, theup-and-down movement begins with very small amplitude near the front endof the frame 25, where an elevator conveyor 83 drops the fruit, andgradually builds up to a maximum at the crankpin 37. Hence, the somewhatless ripe fruit or fruit which is otherwise more difficult to detachfrom the vine is detached from the vine. The throw of the crankpin 37 isset so that it detaches the desirable fruit with few culls and leaves onmost of the green fruit which would have to be culled out.

Another feature of the invention is the combination with the separator25 of off-the-center-line tines 81 that depend from rods 82 that overliethe separator 25. The rods 82 extend transversely between the walls 21and 22 at a plurality of locations in between the front of the separator25 and its rear. The tines 81, preferably made in pairs, are disposedgenerally vertically and are located asymetrically along any one rod 82.The idea is to achieve some rotation of the vines as they move to therear, by engagement with these off-the-axis tines 81; the tines impale avine and slow the progress of part of it, while the rest of the vinecontinues to move along the separator belts 40. Hence, the vine issomewhat rotated at least once and often more than once, while it is onthe separator 25. As a result, the vine is subjected to more thoroughseparation of its fruit than if it proceeded without such rotarymovements.

To protect the tomatoes from being damaged by being trapped between theside frame members 26 and 27 and the side walls 21 and 22, a shield 83is located on each side of the separator 30. For similar reasons and toassure collection of the tomatoes on the conveyor 80, a shield 84extends out from each side wall 21 and 22.

The shields 83 slope down from their supporting side walls 21 and 22 andthen extend down vertically between the side frame members 26 and 27 andthe rest of the separator 30. Slots 85 extend up from the lower edges 86of the shields wherever there is a cross member 28 to enablereciprocation of the separator 30. The edges 86 otherwise lie close tothe separator 30 and extend below it. Thus, the tomatoes are kept fromdamage by being retained within the area of the separator 30. Similarly,the shields 84 have a lower edge 87 just above the conveyor 80, so thatthe tomatoes are guided to the collecting conveyor and cannot fall ofito one side thereof.

To those skilled in the art to which this invention relates, manychanges in construction and widely differing embodiments andapplications of the invention will suggest themselves without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention. The disclosures and thedescription herein are purely illustrative and are not intended to be inany sense limiting.

We claim:

1. A method of mechanically separating fruit or other heavy element of acrop from the remainder of the plant by a shaking action while the plantrests on a generally rectangular frame, comprising the step ofintroducing harvested plants at the front end of the frame,

rocking the front end of the frame and the plants supported thereby insubstantially pure fore-and-aft reciprocating sliding movement, and

driving the rear end of the frame as a unit in a generally circularmotion involving both vertical and fore-and-aft components, while movingthe harvested plants from the front to the rear of the frame, and

dropping the plants from the rear end of said frame whereby the easilyloosened fruit is shaken off by fore-and-aft shaking and the fruit moredifficult to loosen is shaken off by the gradual introduction ofvertical movement as the crop moves rearwardly.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the harvested plants are at times swungrotatively about an off-center vertical axis during a portion of theirmovement from front to rear.

3. A method of mechanically separating fruit or other heavy element of acrop from the remainder of the plant in the field by a moving harvester,by shaking action comprising the steps of:

rocking the harvested plants at first in substantially pure fore-and-aftreciprocating sliding movement, and

then gradually changing the movement of the plants to a generallycircular motion involving both vertical and fore-and-aft components,whereby the easily loosened fruit is shaken off by fore-and-aft shakingand the fruit more difficult to loosen is shaken off by the gradualintroduction of vertical movement.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the harvested plants are swung aroundto different orientations at times during the shaking.

1. A method of mechanically separating fruit or other heavy element of acrop from the remainder of the plant by a shaking action while the plantrests on a generally rectangular frame, comprising the step ofintroducing harvested plants at the front end of the frame, rocking thefront end of the frame and the plants supported thereby in substantiallypure fore-and-aft reciprocating sliding movement, and driving the rearend of the frame as a unit in a generally circular motion involving bothvertical and fore-and-aft components, while moving the harvested plantsfrom the front to the rear of the frame, and dropping the plants fromthe rear end of said frame whereby the easily loosened fruit is shakenoff by fore-and-aft shaking and the fruit more difficult to loosen isshaken off by the gradual introduction of vertical movement as the cropmoves rearwardly.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the harvested plantsare at times swung rotatively about an off-center vertical axis during aportion of their movement from front to rear.
 3. A method ofmechanically separating fruit or other heavy element of a crop from theremainder of the plant in the field by a moving harvester, by shakingaction comprising the steps of: rocking the harvested plants at first insubstantially pure fore-and-aft reciprocating sliding movement, and thengradually changing the movement of the plants to a generally circularmotion involving both vertical and fore-and-aft components, whereby theeasily loosened fruit is shaken off by fore-and-aft shaking and thefruit more difficult to loosen is shaken off by the gradual introductionof vertical movement.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the harvestedplants are swung around to different orientations at times during theshaking.